Thursday, May 10, 2007

Jack Russell: 1; Master: 0

Jack woke me this morning by smothering me with wet doggy tongue kisses, but when I got up to let him out into the yard, he hid under the bed. Yes, it was sprinkling with rain, and Jack had obviously assumed it was going to be too unpleasant to wee.

He's now just over five years old but has always been disconcerted by rain. He also used to hate the hose being on, although in recent years he's been known to race through the water stream, barking loudly. However, rain freaks him out, and i fail to understand how he'd prefer to stay inside all day, holding onto a full bladder all day...

Usually, I have a range of sneaky strategies for tricking Jack outside on a wet day, and at least one has worked: "Look, there's a cat outside!"; ringing the front doorbell and catching him when he runs through the hallway; "Oh, look!"; sneaking up on him curled up on my bed after I've been in the shower; "Jack, come and get your collar on"; or simply grabbing him by the scruff while under the bed, then carefully extricating him and carrying him into the yard.

This morning, absolutely nothing worked. After 20 minutes, I had to admit defeat, then run all the way to work to make up for lost time. This afternoon, before going into the city on the train to collect my weekly comics, I had to swing past the house to let you-know-who relieve his pain.

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About me

Otherwise known as "Therin of Andor", Ian McLean has had an active association with "Star Trek" and science fiction media fandom in Australia since 1980. Before then he was an avid fan of the "Batman" TV series (60s) and the Australian TV classic, "Number 96" (70s).